An Antioch soldier received the Medal of Honor from President Barack Obama at the White House Monday for his bravery in a deadly 2009 battle in Afghanistan that killed several of his fellow servicemen.

Award-winning journalist and war correspondent Michael Hastings has died in a car accident in Los Angeles. He won a Polk Award for magazine reporting for a story that was credited with ending Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s career after it revealed the military’s candid criticisms of the Obama administration.

A veteran who helped “defend the indefensible” at a vulnerable Army outpost in Afghanistan received the nation’s highest award for military valor Monday at a tearful White House ceremony that also honored the eight men who did not survive a Taliban attack.

Four military women who served in Iraq and Afghanistan sued the U.S. Department of Defense in federal court in San Francisco Tuesday to challenge the policy of excluding women from almost all combat duty.